Video: Exploring serif and sans serif

There are many different classifications of typeface. There is no universally agreed upon standard of classifying typefaces, but the main distinction that we can make, the most obvious distinction that we can make between types of typefaces is whether they are serif, or whether they are sans serif, sans meaning without in French. And on the left-hand side, we have an example of serif typeface, specifically Adobe Garamond Pro, and I have circled the Serifs.

Explore the numerous type options, type-related features, and type-specific preferences of Adobe InDesign. Using practical, real-world examples, instructor and designer Nigel French dissects the anatomy of a typeface and defines the vocabulary of typography. The course moves from the micro to the macro level, addressing issues such as choosing page size, determining the size of margins, adjusting number columns, and achieving a clean look with baseline grids. This course takes you from laying out a page to delving into the hows and whys of typography.

Topics include:

Understanding text threads and text flow methods in InDesign

Using Copy and Paste vs. Place

Choosing and combining typefaces

Understanding leading and how it relates to type size and column width

Comparing points, picas, and ems

Learning the proper use of white space and break characters

Understanding the finer points of kerning and tracking

Working with punctuation, special characters, ornaments, and ligatures

Exploring serif and sans serif

There are many different classifications of typeface.There is no universally agreed upon standard of classifying typefaces, but themain distinction that we can make, the most obvious distinction that we can makebetween types of typefaces is whether they are serif, or whether they are sansserif, sans meaning without in French.And on the left-hand side, we have an example of serif typeface, specificallyAdobe Garamond Pro, and I have circled the Serifs.

And on the right-hand side, an example of a sans serif.Now, not all serifs are the same, and not all sans serifs are the same.Here we have three different types of serif typefaces, running from left toright, a bracketed serif, Adobe Caslon Pro.Adobe Caslon Pro is an example of a typeface that represents the old styleclass of typefaces.And then in the center we have Bodoni, with its flat serifs.

This is a modern class of typeface.And then on the right-hand side, a slab serif, Chaparral Pro, and we can clearlysee the distinction between not only the style of serifs, but also how muchtransition there is between thick and thin parts of the letters.Chronologically speaking, these different types of serif typefaces run fromold style, to transitional -- an example of which we do not have onscreen -- to modern, to slab.

The transitional class is essentially, as its name implies, a transitionbetween the old style class into the modern style, and it exhibitscharacteristics of both.Just as not all serifs are the same, the same is true of sans serif typefaces.A very broad distinction that we can make is that some sans serif typefaces arereferred to as being humanist, i.e. the shapes of the letter forms bear morerelation to the traditional shape of the serif letter forms, which in turn isderived from the shape of calligraphy, as drawn by the human hand. Hence, they arereferred to as humanist.

An example, on the left, we have Gill Sans.Contrasting with that, we have geometric sans serifs.The prime example of this is Futura, where the Os and the other rounded letterforms are derived from circles.So while I am simplifying greatly here, and painting with very broad strokes overmore than five centuries of typographic history, I just want to make the pointthat while we refer to typefaces as being serif or sans serif, there is a greatwealth of diversity within those two broad distinctions.

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The exercise files provided aren't working in my version of InDesign (CS4, CS5, or CS5.5). What should I use?

This course was recorded using InDesign CS6. For InDesign users working with CS4, CS5, or CS5.5, IDML files are provided.

A: We added 18 new movies, primarily in the "Using Typekit" and "Type Treatments and Effects" chapters. These movies describe new and enhanced typography features in the latest release of InDesign CC, and are indicated by the "(CC 2014.1)" tag in their names.

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